Being There My AIDS Buddy Story (1990-1996)

Marjorie Lain Marsh grew up in a Chicago suburb. She graduated with an honors degree in journalism from Michigan State University. She became a newspaper reporter in Charlotte, North Carolina, and later, Albany, New York. She was became a feminist in the late 1960s. Marge enjoyed working in a time when young women often left work to become homemakers. Her church involvement led her to explore a call to ministry, still a fairly rare thing for women. Graduating from Andover Newton Theological School in Newton Centre, Massachusetts, she was ordained in the Presbyterian Church, USA, in 1985. She worked for Andover Newton, writing and editing the school's publications. In 1989 she undertook a ministry with people living with AIDS responding to her sense of call to pastoral work at a time when many churches were ignoring AIDS, claiming people with AIDS were not a part of their congregations. Besides her buddy work, she was active in other AIDS ministries in the Boston area, including hospital chaplaincy and establishing a residence for homeless women with AIDS. Marge credits her AIDS ministry to the support of Earl Thompson, her husband of thirty plus years. Now in retirement, she enjoys traveling on Road Scholar programs, and learning through taking classes and reading. She is active in her community of Asheville, North Carolina, particularly in ministries with hungry and homeless people. Wherever she has lived, she has been involved in social justice causes, and laughs at her ability to participate currently in some demonstrations while sitting down.